Page 52 of Marked By Moonlight

Through the tangle of hair shielding her face, she eyed the young woman standing at the foot of the bed—a Krispy Kreme box balanced on one palm, one chocolate glazed doughnut in the other hand. She was small, slim, almost girlish in appearance except for the keen, world-wise green eyes beneath high-arching eyebrows.

“Kit,” Gideon groaned next to her, his muscled arm warm and solid beside hers.

Kit took a dainty bite of her doughnut, casually surveying her brother in bed with Claire. “I thought you liked brunettes, Gid.”

“Christ,” he cursed, adjusting the covers around his waist. “Just walk right in.”

His sister paused to take another bite. Her tone faintly accusing, she cocked her head and gave him a coy look as she reminded him, “You gave me a key.”

The smell of chocolate made Claire’s stomach rumble.

“Hungry?” The blonde clamped her doughnut between pearly white teeth and poked through the contents of the box with her free hand. Stepping forward, she sat on the edge of the bed and extended a doughnut to Claire as if she visited her brother in bed with strange women all the time.

Pushing back the hair from her face, Claire reached for the offering, but Kit’s sudden scream made her jerk back. Falling on the bed, she looked around, half expecting to see a giant rat or snake slither across the floor.

Gideon cursed beside her.

A chocolate doughnut smacked Claire in the face, snapping her head back in surprise.

“Kit!” Gideon scolded as Claire wiped the sticky chocolate from her face.

“Are you crazy?” His sister charged, flinging the box of doughnuts on the floor, sending them tumbling in all directions. “You’re in bed with a lycan!”

“She’s only infected. She hasn’t fed yet.”

“Yet,” she snarled, the baby-smooth lines of her face tightening.

“Kit,” Gideon said, sitting up. “You’re going to have to trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

“How could you forget?” she demanded, her voice thick with emotion, green eyes so like Gideon’s sparkling with fury.

“I’ll never forget,” he returned. “How could I? Maybe I want to give Claire the chance Mom never had.”

“Right.” She snorted, her gaze cynical. Her gaze turned on Claire then, and the full blast of venom there could be felt as keenly as a slap to the face. “Claire.Since when do you care about anything or anyone except killing a lycan?”

Shaking her head fiercely, she stormed out of the room. Her feet pounded down the stairs. A door slammed, the sound reverberating through the old house’s thick walls.

They sat side by side for several moments, tension humming thickly on the air.

Claire turned to look at him and her mouth watered at the sight of his lean, sinewy chest. The morning light streaming through the window only highlighted the perfection of his body. She thought only movie stars had bodies like that. No man she knew did. Brian had been pasty and pale, with legs and arms skinnier than hers. Gideon’s arms were tanned bands of muscle.

Averting her eyes, she murmured, “That didn’t go over well, did it?”

He dragged a hand through his shaggy, sun-kissed locks. “Not too bad actually. She didn’t go for my gun and try to shoot you herself. Guess we’re lucky it wasn’t Cooper again this morning,” he grumbled.

Claire could only nod, finding little positive about the encounter. Kit had seen only a monster when she looked at her. A monster that needed destroying. “Will she tell Cooper?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, he considered her question. “Kit’s loyal. And Cooper pisses her off. Has ever since she was a kid. We lost our father and Kit didn’t want him for a substitute. Resented what she thought was him trying.”

“That’s enough to keep her from running to him? She was pretty upset.”

“Yeah. And Kit has always wanted to be an agent, but Coop won’t consider it. Another reason she resents him.”

“Maybe she’ll decide to take me out herself, then.”

“I can handle Kit.” He patted her knee through the thin sheets.

The touch did anything but reassure her. Her skin sizzled from the contact. He must have realized what he had done because his hand stilled, molding to the curve of her knee. Her breath caught, trapped in her chest as their eyes locked. Last night flooded back. And with it came the hunger.

---